Blogging 101: Say My Name, Say My Name

Well this is kind of embarrassing… I actually found where to sign up to Blogging 101 this morning (I had just joined in yesterday when I saw it in my reader)! So I have signed up a bit late, but will continue on with the assignments as they appear in my Reader. It actually seems like a lot of fun! Today the assignment was to edit my title and tagline, something that is an interesting assignment for someone who’s already been blogging for several months, so here is a reflection on why I chose my blog title and header.

The All Important Title

My blog’s address of ‘thedyslexicstudent.wordpress.com‘ was chosen because someone already had ‘dyslexiaandme.wordpress.com‘ which was what I had originally intended on calling my shiny new blog. Upsettingly, whoever owns the blog address I had wanted so desperately hasn’t posted a single post or changed their ‘About‘ section. I had tried a variety of different addresses to get as close to ‘Dyslexia and Me‘ as possible, but none of them were available. I was very happy when I found that I could change the title to ‘Dyslexia and Me‘ for two main reasons:

‘Dyslexia and Me‘ reflects what my blog is about. It’s about my life and how having dyslexia has affected me both positively and negatively.

I knew I would be graduating from university in July this year so ‘The Dyslexic Student‘ would have limited the life of the blog and also the content of my blog posts to academic experiences.

After changing the name to ‘Dyslexia and Me‘ I set up my Facebook page. In the last month I have also created my Twitter account and email address and edited my BlogLovin‘ to reflect the name. It would have perhaps been easier to have my blog address branded with the same, but I wasn’t fast enough in grabbing it! (Yes, I am still slightly miffed.) It’s far easier to market your blog when you’ve settled on a title. Having done bits and pieces of online marketing in the past, it’s something that I am aware of but am still learning as I go along.

Tag! You’re It!

The tagline was far more difficult for me to come up with. I wanted it to reflect what I would be discussing within the blog.

I wanted my readers to know that my blog was about my experiences rather than a blog with all the academic jargon on what dyslexia may or may not be. I am not an educational psychologist or a specialist in dyslexia, just a person who has dyslexia.

I wanted to show that there would be positive and negative sides of dyslexia discussed within the blog. A blog that is full of negativity probably won’t draw in readers. Plus there are many positives to dyslexia.

I wanted to discuss another special educational need (SEN) I have, which is related to dyslexia but only affects some people with dyslexia. I knew that if my blog was solely about scotopic sensitivity syndrome (also known as Irlen Syndrome, Meares-Irlen Syndrome, visual stress or Asfedia) it would attract an even smaller readership than I currently have. The many names for scotopic sensitivity syndrome also would have made the title very long and confusing!

I really hope that ‘Trials and Triumphs: A Lifetimes Experience with Dyslexia and Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome‘ reflects all of these things, or makes sure ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin‘. I would love your thoughts on this, so please leave comments below.